New and digital media stories

Paywalls or not? It's as easy as ABC

Readership figures for the Times and Sunday Times versus the Guardian and Observer show the difference a paywall makes

ABC's latest report shows that...

• The Times has 75,597 tablet subscribers
• The Sunday Times has 88,603 tablet subscribers

These are the figures after both papers introduced their paywalls which meant that online customers had to subscribe to view the newspapers content online. However, on a separate National Readership Survey, the numbers of paying web readers add only to 3.9% of the daily readership total.

In terms of these paywalls, more and more newspapers seem to be introducing this concept of viewers and online readers to pay a monthly subscription fee in order to gain access to their site. Furthermore, the more newspaper corporations that introduce this idea, the more value 

news will have and therefore people would trust paywalls as a small 

price to pay for a necessity like the news.

Americans can't live without the web – but social media is a different story

New Pew study shows US an increasingly digital society, but Americans view social media and the internet very differently

The internet is one of the most popular sources in America. It's 25 year anniversary is soon to be coming up this year in March. What's most shocking is that only 11% of Americans feel like giving up social media such as Twitter and Facebook wouldn't be difficult. That leaves 89% of Americans feeling like giving up social media would be a very hard thing for them to do.

• A study shows that 42% of Americans access or have access to multi platform social networking 

But the survey also shows that Americans may still view participating in social media, accessing the internet and using email as entirely different experiences.

In terms of the statistics shown based on American use of social networking, I think that many countries across the world have this same issue and that many people have this problem. People have become addicted to the virtual reality and the internet and are trapped/blinded by the glamor the internet possesses. Furthermore, I think people need to realise that social networking is a good form of communication, however it should not be the only form of communication and people have forgotten how to talk to one another in the real world. I think this article really shows how people in general; not just Americans; have incorporated the internet into their daily routines which has now become a necessity for the way we live our lives.